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The buzz of anticipation rose as the hall filled. The reserved ringside seats were duly claimed by those of appropriate rank, usually sleek of dress and grey of head. More fans were expected — 700 or so — than there were seats to accommodate them, and ushers worked diligently, as the moment approached, to get all comers settled.

Then, right on time, a small entourage arrived. Applause erupted at the sight of the old warrior framed in the doorway, his profile as instantly recognizable as any in Canada. And, as ever, the cheers lit him up.

His always stiff gait seemed slightly more so as he entered. But when a woman old enough to remember sprang from her front-row seat to greet him, his professional’s instincts kicked in and he summoned the old combination.

There was the quick point of a finger in apparent recognition, the delight upon his face as if she was the very person he’d hoped to see, an obligatory air-buss as he moved toward centre-stage.

If, 20 years removed from office, former prime minister Brian Mulroney was puffier, seemed wearier, the pouches under his eyes more pronounced, his tailoring was as impeccable as ever, all gleaming white cuffs and collars, his blue tie exquisite, the watch a statement as much as timepiece.

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The only thing missing, as Mulroney arrived at the University of Toronto’s Rotman business school for a chat this week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his free trade agreement with the United States, was a wizened old corner-man with towels slung over his arm.

Had someone blared Rick Astley’s bouncy “Together Forever” over the PA system (Mulroney’s campaign song back then), and had wife Mila been at his side, beaming and pointing and air-kissing along with him, it could almost have been the Great Free Trade Election of 1988 all over again.

For an hour, in conversation with Rotman Prof. Joseph Martin, that well-deep baritone spun war stories of epic fights past and how — after time does its inevitable work — his accomplishments will stand among the greatest in Canada’s history.

Yet Brian Mulroney made plain that, as Simon and Garfunkel sang, he still carries the reminder of every long-ago glove that landed during the free trade fight.

Though he is “a statesman now,” and above the fray, the feckless media, timid Canadians, opportunistic opponents, the America bashers, the Reagan haters all came in for contemptuous recollection that a quarter-century seemed to have but mildly softened.

The free trade deal was, in fact, born of his preference for accomplishment over popularity, Mulroney said, and founded on his personal relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

“If you don’t have access to the Oval Office and to the president of the United States, you are dead on bilateral relationships — no matter what the local press says about you here.”

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Mulroney pointed with pride to the praise heaped on him in Reagan’s diaries and how, after a visit by the prime minister and Mila to the White House in 1986, the former president wrote:

“I hope that we can work out some things in the area of trade that will benefit him. Right now, pol(itical) opponents are trying to portray him as an American puppet.”

For Mulroney, the making of the free trade deal is an oft-told tale, and he has polished the vignettes of the fight to a gleaming lustre.

He did not mention to the Rotman crowd that he had, in his leadership campaign of 1983, opposed “unfettered free trade” with the U.S.

John Crosbie, the former cabinet minister who ran against Mulroney for the leadership, recalled in his memoir No Holds Barred that until the so-called Shamrock Summit between Mulroney and Reagan in Quebec City in 1985 — which involved the infamous warbling of “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” — there was no inkling among senior Tories that free trade was on the agenda.

“As far as any of us knew, Mulroney was still opposed to free trade,” Crosbie wrote.

But three things had happened. There had been a protectionist swing in the U.S., Europe was moving to a common trading bloc, and the report in September 1985 by the Macdonald Royal Commission — headed by a former Liberal finance minister, of all things — recommended “a leap of faith” into a Canada-U.S. free trade agreement.

In 1986, negotiations began. But for more than a year, little was achieved. The Americans were not taking the issue as seriously as Canada, and chief U.S. negotiator Peter Murphy lacked “the clout to get things done,” Mulroney said.

Moreover, the deal had to be reached by midnight Oct. 3, 1987, under American fast-track authority — in order that it be immune from amendment and cherry-picking and subjected in Congress to a simple vote of yes or no.

For Canada, the key point was always inclusion of an independent dispute resolution mechanism, Mulroney said, without which “there would be no deal.”

By early September 1987, Mulroney told cabinet the deal looked headed for the ditch and that he intended to withdraw chief negotiator Simon Reisman from Washington. “This got the attention, of course, of President Reagan.”

In fact, as Mulroney’s pointman Derek Burney would later write in his memoir Getting It Done, Reagan didn’t know much about Canada or pay it much heed.

“The only time he really engaged our prime minister on an issue relating to free trade was when he registered his concern about Canadian restrictions on the distribution of Hollywood movies in Canada.”

Still, there was no question Reagan liked Mulroney, Burney said, and that opened channels to the administration.

Mulroney told the Rotman crowd that when he gave that grim prediction to cabinet, he was dismayed to see how many ministers looked relieved. Free trade was going to be no easy sell come the next election.

“Canadians are so resistance to change,” he said. “‘Canadians are wonderful people. Just tell them the truth and they’ll deal with it’. . . Don’t you ever believe that in Canadian politics!”

Once, after he’d told Reagan how poorly things were proceeding, the president sent then-Vice President George Bush Sr. and Treasury Secretary Jim Baker to Ottawa to meet Mulroney.

“Mr. Speaker, delighted to see the prime minister back in Ottawa after sucking up with the Americans in a disgraceful way. What a shameful prime minister! Surely you’re ashamed of yourself! And that dummy Reagan down there! And Bush! What a shadow of a vice president he is.

“I said to both of them, ‘Are you enjoying this? I’ve got to put up with this every day.’”

He said Bush and Baker took the tape back to Washington and played it for Reagan, who said: “We’ve got to do something for Brian right now.”

Still, until the final days and hours of negotiations, prospects looked grim.

Canada’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Allan Gotlieb, recalled in his diaries that he had to talk a furious Mulroney out of a premature withdrawal of chief negotiator Reisman from the talks.

It was better, Gotlieb counselled, to “create a crisis” by threatening to nearer the deadline. This would apply “electric shock treatment” to the U.S. side. And on Sept. 23, 1987, 10 days short of the deadline, Reisman did walk out.

Then, Mulroney recalled, Baker took control of the U.S. team. “Without Jim Baker on the American side, it couldn’t have been done.”

Over the next week, the dance tentatively resumed. There were theatrical paper tossing and the stomping out of meetings by Burney. Even into the evening of Oct. 3, prospects of success looked dim.

By 8 p.m., Mulroney planned to leave Harrington Lake for the Langevin Block to announce the failure of negotiations.

In the meantime, he said, he had a call from Baker saying the independent dispute resolution mechanism “was not on.” Mulroney said he promptly proposed calling Reagan at Camp David.

“I’m going to say to him, ‘Ron, I want you to explain to me how it is that you have just concluded, the Americans have just concluded, a nuclear reduction treaty with their worst enemies, the Soviet Union, and you can’t conclude a free trade agreement with your best friends, the Canadians.’

“Baker says, ‘PM, can you give me 20 minutes?’”

A short time later, as participants would report, Baker burst into the room, flung a piece of paper on the table and said: “Alright, you can have your goddamn dispute settlement mechanism!”

And the Rt. Hon. M. Brian Mulroney, smiling broadly, told the Rotman crowd, as if describing the left cross that won a world title belt: “That’s the way Canada saved the free trade agreement.”

There would yet be the small matter of Liberals blocking passage of the legislation in the Senate, and the 1988 election — one of the fiercest in Canadian history — to be fought.

But that election won, and legislation eventually passed, Canada had a trade agreement “that was the greatest in the history of the world,” Mulroney said.

Few, if any, of the fears of opponents came to pass, he said. Moreover, Canada’s prosperity relative to the rest of the world is founded, he said, on those very free trade initiatives and related tax reform and deregulation.

It was the greatest privilege of his life, Mulroney said, “to, in some modest way, be able to help shape the destiny of Canada.”

“They should have polls for accomplishment and achievement,” said the man who retired in widespread disdain just ahead of his party’s terminal decline. “Not for popularity.”

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